Method, server, and user device for providing user&#39;s personal medicine information management service between the server and the user device

ABSTRACT

A method of managing a personal medicine information management service by a user device and a server includes obtaining a medicine image captured by photographing appearance of a user medicine; transmitting the obtained medicine image to the server as a request for recognition of the user medicine; and receiving medicine quantity information and personal medicine information from the server based on a result of the recognition of the user medicine. The personal medicine information includes an image of the user medicine of which recognition training is performed by the server.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATION

This application claims priority from of Korean Patent Application No.10-2011-0005991, filed on Jan. 20, 2011 in the Korean IntellectualProperty Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein byreference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

1. Field

Methods and apparatuses consistent with the exemplary embodiments relateto a network environment for providing a personal life managementservice by using a wireless communication technology.

2. Description of the Related Art

A huge number of medicines are developed and sold along with thedevelopment of medical technologies. Unlike in the past when theeconomical development was followed by an increase in life quality,nowadays, many people consider life quality as being more valuable andare interested in living a healthy life style. This has led to increaseddemands for nonprescription medicines and health supplements. However,drug abuse is harmful and medicines should be taken appropriately.

SUMMARY

Exemplary embodiments relate to a method, a server, and a user devicefor providing a personal medicine information management service betweenthe server and the user device.

According to an aspect of an exemplary embodiment, there is provided amethod of providing a personal medicine information management serviceby a user device that communicates with a server, the method including:photographing a user medicine to obtain a medicine image of the usermedicine; transmitting to the server a request for recognition of theuser medicine, the request comprising the obtained medicine image; andreceiving medicine quantity information and personal medicineinformation from the server based on a result of the recognition of theuser medicine, wherein the personal medicine information comprises animage of the user medicine of which recognition is performed by theserver.

According to another aspect of an exemplary embodiment, there isprovided a method of providing a personal medicine informationmanagement service by a server, the method including: receiving from auser device a request to recognize of user medicine, the requestcomprising a medicine image of the user medicine; analyzing the receivedmedicine image to recognize the user medicine and to determine aremaining quantity of the user medicine; and transmitting to the userdevice medicine quantity information and personal medicine informationstored in the server, based on a result of the analyzing, wherein thepersonal medicine information comprises an image of the user medicine ofwhich recognition is performed by the server.

According to another aspect of an exemplary embodiment, there isprovided a method of providing a personal medicine informationmanagement service by a user device, the method including: photographinga user medicine to obtain a medicine image of the user medicine; andtransmitting to a server a request for recognition of the user medicine,the request comprising the medicine image, wherein, if the recognitionof the user medicine is completed by the server, the user medicine isadded to personal medicine information by the server.

According to another aspect of an exemplary embodiment, there isprovided a method of providing a personal medicine informationmanagement service by a server, the method including: receiving from auser device a medicine image of a user medicine, as a request forrecognition of the user medicine; and adding the user medicine topersonal medicine information based on the received medicine image.

According to another aspect of an exemplary embodiment, there isprovided a user device for providing a personal medicine informationmanagement service, the user device including: a medicine imageobtaining unit that obtains a medicine image of a user medicine; amedicine recognition requesting unit that transmits to a server arequest for recognition of the user medicine, the request comprising theobtained medicine image; and a medicine information receiving unit thatreceives medicine quantity information and personal medicine informationfrom the server based on a result of the recognition of the usermedicine, wherein the personal medicine information comprises an imageof the user medicine of which recognition is performed by the server.

According another aspect of an exemplary embodiment, there is provided aserver for providing a personal medicine information management service,the server including a medicine information storage that stores personalmedicine information; a medicine recognition request receiving unit thatreceives from a user device a request for recognition of user medicine,the request comprising a medicine image of the user medicine; a medicineimage reading unit that analyzes the received medicine image torecognize the user medicine and to determine a remaining quantity of theuser medicine; and a medicine information transmitting unit thattransmits to the user device medicine quantity information and thepersonal medicine information stored in the server, based on a result ofthe analyzing, wherein the personal medicine information comprises animage of the user medicine of which recognition is performed by theserver.

According to another aspect of an exemplary embodiment, there isprovided a user device for providing a personal medicine informationmanagement service, the user device including: a medicine imageobtaining unit that obtains a medicine image of a user medicine; and amedicine recognition training requesting unit that transmits to a servera request for recognition of the user medicine, the request comprisingthe medicine image of the user medicine, wherein, if the recognition ofthe user medicine is completed by the server, the user medicine is addedinto personal medicine information by the server.

According to another aspect of an exemplary embodiment, there isprovided a server for providing a personal medicine informationmanagement service, the server including: a medicine information storagethat stores personal medicine information; a medicine recognitiontraining request receiving unit that receives from a user device arequest for recognition of user medicine, the request comprising amedicine image of the user medicine; and a personal medicine informationprocessing unit that adds the user medicine into the personal medicineinformation based on recognition of the received medicine image.

According to another aspect of an exemplary embodiment, there isprovided a computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon acomputer program for executing the above method of providing a personalmedicine information management service by a user device via a server.

According to another aspect of an exemplary embodiment, there isprovided a computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon acomputer program for executing the above method of providing a personalmedicine information management service by a server.

According to another aspect of an exemplary embodiment, there isprovided a computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon acomputer program for executing the above method of providing a personalmedicine information management service by a user device to requestrecognition training of a user medicine.

According to another aspect of an exemplary embodiment, there isprovided a computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon acomputer program for executing the above method of providing a personalmedicine information management service by a server to performrecognition training of a user medicine.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other aspects will become more apparent by describing indetail exemplary embodiments, with reference to the attached drawings inwhich:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a user device for providing a user'spersonal medicine information management service, according to anexemplary embodiment;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a server for providing a user's personalmedicine information management service, according to an exemplaryembodiment;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a user device for requesting recognitiontraining of a user medicine in order to provide a user's personalmedicine information management service, according to an exemplaryembodiment;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a server for performing recognitiontraining of a user medicine in order to provide a user's personalmedicine information management service, according to an exemplaryembodiment;

FIG. 5 illustrates medicine images captured by a user device andrecognized by a server, according to an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 6 is a detailed block diagram of a user device for providing auser's personal medicine information management service, according to anexemplary embodiment;

FIGS. 7A, 7B, and 7C illustrate various examples of the user deviceillustrated in FIG. 1 or 3, according to exemplary embodiments;

FIGS. 8A and 8B illustrate screens for displaying user's personalmedicine information, according to exemplary embodiments;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of a method of requesting recognition training ofa user medicine by a user device to provide a user's personal medicineinformation management service, according to an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of a method of performing recognition training ofa user medicine by a server to provide a user's personal medicineinformation management service, according to an exemplary embodiment;

FIGS. 11 a and 11 b are flowcharts of a method of requesting andperforming recognition training of a user medicine by a user device anda server to provide a user's personal medicine information managementservice, according to an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 12 is a flowchart of a method of providing a user's personalmedicine information management service by a user device via a server,according to an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 13 a flowchart of a method of providing a user's personal medicineinformation management service by a server, according to an exemplaryembodiment;

FIG. 14 is a flowchart of a method of providing a user's personalmedicine information management service by a user device and a server,according to an exemplary embodiment; and

FIG. 15 is a block diagram of a convergence server for providing amachine-to-machine (M2M) service including a user's personal medicineinformation management service, according to an exemplary embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

Users may purchase prescription or non-prescription medicines atdrugstores. In most cases, non-prescription medicines directly sold atgeneral drugstores to customers have unique packages for identificationpurposes and instructions for use purposes outside or inside thepackages. However, if the packages or instructions of such medicines arelost, customers may not know how to use the medicines. Also, in the caseof prescription medicines, if prescriptions or packages of the medicinesare lost, customers may not know how to take or use the prescriptionmedicines.

Accordingly, in a user's personal medicine information managementservice according to an exemplary embodiment, a server may collectinformation regarding a personal medicine of the user, identify thepersonal medicine, and manage a medicine-taking history by checking theremaining quantity of the personal medicine, thereby providing overallinformation related to the personal medicine to the user. For this, aserver for providing a user's personal medicine information managementservice, according to an exemplary embodiment, may receive and read amedicine image captured by a user device, extract and transmitinformation regarding a corresponding medicine to the user device, andprovide personal medicine information to the user.

Hereinafter, for convenience of explanation, a user's medicine of whichan image is captured by a user device and which is not yet recognized bya server is referred to as a ‘user medicine’, and a user medicineregistered in user's personal medicine information by a server isreferred to as a ‘user's personal medicine’.

A user device 100 and a server 200 for providing a user's personalmedicine information management service will now be described withreference to FIGS. 1 and 2.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the user device 100 for providing a user'spersonal medicine information management service, according to anexemplary embodiment.

The user device 100 includes a medicine image obtaining unit 110, amedicine recognition requesting unit 120, and a medicine informationreceiving unit 130. The user device 100 may perform data communicationwith the server 200 via a wired or wireless communication network 150.Also, the server 200 may be a cloud computing based virtual server.

The medicine image obtaining unit 110 may obtain a medicine imagecaptured by photographing appearance of a user medicine. If an imagesensor is included, the medicine image obtaining unit 110 may directlyphotograph the appearance of the user medicine. If an image sensor isnot included, the medicine image obtaining unit 110 may obtain themedicine image captured by an accessible external device, such as aubiquitous or Bluetooth device.

The obtained medicine image of the user medicine may include imagesshowing the appearance of the user medicine, e.g., an image showing ashape of a medicine itself, and an image showing a shape of a medicinepackage. Also, the medicine image of the user medicine may include atleast one of an image showing non-prescription medicine identificationinformation of the user medicine, and an image showing nonprescriptionmedicine product information of the user medicine, which are readablefrom the appearance of the user medicine.

The medicine recognition requesting unit 120 may transmit to the server200 the medicine image obtained by the medicine image obtaining unit110, as a request for recognition of the user medicine.

The medicine information receiving unit 130 may receive user's personalmedicine information and medicine quantity information from the server200 based on a result of the recognition of the user medicine, inresponse to the request of the medicine recognition requesting unit 120.The medicine information receiving unit 130 may receive identificationinformation and remaining quantity information of the user medicine,which are read by the server 200 based on the appearance of the usermedicine by analyzing the medicine image.

The user's personal medicine information stored in the server 200 mayinclude an image of the user medicine of which recognition training isperformed by the server 200 in advance. The user's personal medicineinformation may include one or more pieces of information regarding theuser medicine.

The server 200 may determine whether the medicine imagerecognition-requested by the medicine recognition requesting unit 120corresponds to a user's personal medicine based on the user's personalmedicine information stored in the server 200. If the server 200determines that the recognition-requested medicine image corresponds toa user's personal medicine, the medicine information receiving unit 130may receive at least one of a prescription history, a purchase history,a medicine-taking history, and a disease history of a user regarding theuser medicine, from among pieces of the user's personal medicineinformation stored in the server 200.

If the server 200 determines that the recognition-requested medicineimage does not correspond to a user's personal medicine, the medicineinformation receiving unit 130 may receive a recognition failure messagefrom the server 200.

Although it is determined that the recognition-requested medicine imagedoes not correspond to a user's personal medicine, if therecognition-requested medicine image is recognized based onnon-prescription medicine information stored in the server 200, themedicine information receiving unit 130 may receive at least one ofnon-prescription medicine identification information andnon-prescription medicine product information related to the usermedicine, from among pieces of the non-prescription medicineinformation.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the server 200 for providing a user'spersonal medicine information management service, according to anexemplary embodiment.

The server 200 includes a medicine information storage 210, a medicinerecognition request receiving unit 220, a medicine image reading unit230, and a medicine information transmitting unit 240. As describedabove in relation to FIG. 1, the server 200 may perform datacommunication with the user device 100 via the wired or wirelesscommunication network 150. Also, the server 200 may be a cloud computingbased virtual server.

The medicine information storage 210 stores a user's personal medicineinformation. The medicine information storage 210 may further storeinformation regarding non-prescription medicines.

A medicine image of a user medicine may include an image showingidentification information readable from appearance of the usermedicine, e.g., a medicine shape, a package shape, a medicine name, or atrademark, and an image showing product information readable from theappearance of the user medicine, e.g., a manufacturer name, a barcode,or a quick response (QR) code. A medicine image of a user's personalmedicine includes a medicine image received from the user device 100.

The user's personal medicine information may include a medicine image asidentification information of a user's personal medicine. Also, theuser's personal medicine information may further include amedicine-taking history, a prescription history, a purchase history, arelate disease history, etc., regarding a user's personal medicine.

The medicine recognition request receiving unit 220 receives from theuser device 100 a medicine image captured by photographing theappearance of a user medicine, as a request for recognition of the usermedicine.

The medicine image reading unit 230 analyzes the received medicine imageand reads the appearance and a remaining quantity of the user medicine.The medicine information transmitting unit 240 transmits to the userdevice 100 medicine quantity information and the user's personalmedicine information stored in the server 200, based on a result of thereading by the medicine image reading unit 230.

The medicine image reading unit 230 may read identification informationof the user medicine based on an image showing the appearance of theuser medicine extracted from the medicine image. The image showing theappearance of the user medicine may be the identification information ofthe user medicine, or related identification information may beextracted by searching the user's personal medicine information storedin the server 200 by using the mage showing the appearance of the usermedicine. The medicine information transmitting unit 240 may transmitthe read identification information of the user medicine to the userdevice 100.

The medicine information transmitting unit 240 may transmit to the userdevice 100 the medicine quantity information read by the medicine imagereading unit 230.

Also, the medicine information transmitting unit 240 may find a user'spersonal medicine corresponding to the medicine image by searching theuser's personal medicine information stored in the server 200, based onthe result of the reading by the medicine image reading unit 230. Themedicine information transmitting unit 240 may transmit to the userdevice 100 additional information regarding the found user's personalmedicine, e.g., product information, a medicine-taking history, and aprescription history.

The user's personal medicine information stored in the server 200 mayinclude an image of the user medicine of which recognition training isperformed by the server 200 in advance. The user's personal medicineinformation may include information regarding one or more usermedicines.

The medicine image reading unit 230 may determine whether the medicineimage recognition-requested by the user device 100 corresponds to auser's personal medicine, based on the user's personal medicineinformation stored in the medicine information storage 210. If themedicine image reading unit 230 determines that therecognition-requested medicine image corresponds to a user's personalmedicine, the medicine information transmitting unit 240 may transmit atleast one of a prescription history, a purchase history, amedicine-taking history, and a disease history of a user regarding theuser medicine, from among pieces of the user's personal medicineinformation stored in the server 200.

If the medicine image reading unit 230 determines that therecognition-requested medicine image does not correspond to a user'spersonal medicine, the medicine information transmitting unit 240 maytransmit a recognition failure message to the user device 100.

However, even when the recognition-requested medicine image isdetermined not to correspond to a user's personal medicine, if therecognition-requested medicine image is recognizable based onnon-prescription medicine information stored in the medicine informationstorage 210, the medicine information transmitting unit 240 may transmitat least one of non-prescription medicine identification information andnon-prescription medicine product information regarding the usermedicine from among pieces of the non-prescription medicine information.

The server 200 may further include a personal medicine informationprocessing unit (not shown) for setting the user's personal medicineinformation. The medicine information storage 210 may update amedicine-taking history from among pieces of the user's personalmedicine information based on the medicine quantity information readfrom the medicine image.

In order to allow the server 200 to manage the user's personal medicineinformation by recognizing the user medicine, and to manage informationregarding medicines useful to the user, the server 200 needs torecognize user's personal medicines in advance. For this, the server 200may perform recognition training of the user's personal medicines withthe aid of the user device 100.

A user device 300 for requesting and a server 400 for performingrecognition training of a user medicine in order to provide a user'spersonal medicine information management service will now be describedwith reference to FIGS. 3 and 4.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the user device 300 for requestingrecognition training of a user medicine in order to provide a user'spersonal medicine information management service, according to anexemplary embodiment.

The user device 300 includes a medicine image obtaining unit 310 and amedicine recognition training requesting unit 320. The user device 300may perform data communication with the server 400 via a wired orwireless communication network 350. Also, the server 400 may be a cloudcomputing based virtual server.

The medicine image obtaining unit 310 may obtain a medicine imagecaptured by photographing appearance of a user medicine. If an imagesensor is included, the medicine image obtaining unit 310 may directlyphotograph the appearance of the user medicine. If an image sensor isnot included, the medicine image obtaining unit 310 may obtain themedicine image captured by an accessible external device, such as aubiquitous or Bluetooth device.

The medicine recognition training requesting unit 320 transmits to theserver 400 the medicine image obtained by the medicine image obtainingunit 310, as a request for recognition training of the user medicine.The user medicine of which recognition training is completed by theserver 400 may be added into user's personal medicine information storedin the server 400.

The medicine image obtaining unit 310 may obtain a plurality ofdifferent medicine images captured by repeatedly photographing the usermedicine until the recognition training of the user medicine iscompleted by the server 400, and the medicine recognition trainingrequesting unit 320 may repeatedly transmit the obtained medicineimages. The user device 300 may receive from the server 400 a trainingcompletion message informing that the recognition training of the usermedicine is completed.

The obtained medicine image of the user medicine may include imagesshowing the appearance of the user medicine, e.g., an image showing ashape of a medicine itself, and an image showing a shape of a medicinepackage. Also, the medicine image of the user medicine may include atleast one of an image showing non-prescription medicine identificationinformation of the user medicine, and an image showing non-prescriptionmedicine product information of the user medicine, which are readablefrom the appearance of the user medicine.

Like the user device 100, the user device 300 may transmit a request forrecognition of the user medicine after the recognition training of theuser medicine is completed by the server 400. In response to therequest, the user device 300 may receive medicine quantity informationand user's personal medicine information from the server 400 based on aresult of the recognition of the user medicine.

Accordingly, if the request for the recognition of the user medicine istransmitted to the server 400, it is determined whether therecognition-requested medicine is a user's personal medicine, based onthe user's personal medicine information stored in the server 400, andthe user device 300 may receive from the server 400 a determinationresult message.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the server 400 for performing recognitiontraining of a user medicine in order to provide a user's personalmedicine information management service, according to an exemplaryembodiment.

The server 400 includes a medicine information storage 410, a medicinerecognition training request receiving unit 420, and a personal medicineinformation processing unit 430. As described above in relation to FIG.3, the server 400 may perform data communication with the user device300 via the wired or wireless communication network 350. Also, theserver 400 may be a cloud computing based virtual server.

The medicine information storage 410 stores user's personal medicineinformation. The medicine information storage 410 may further includeinformation regarding non-prescription medicines.

A medicine image of a user medicine may include an image showingidentification information readable from appearance of the usermedicine, e.g., a medicine shape, a package shape, a medicine name, or atrademark, and an image showing product information readable from theappearance of the user medicine, e.g., a manufacturer name, a barcode,or a quick response (QR) code. Also, the medicine image itself may bestored as the user's personal medicine information. A medicine image ofa user's personal medicine includes a medicine image received from theuser device 300.

The medicine recognition training request receiving unit 420 may receivefrom the user device 300 a medicine image captured by photographingappearance of a user medicine, as a request for recognition training ofthe user medicine.

The medicine recognition training request receiving unit 420 mayrepeatedly receive a plurality of different medicine images captured byphotographing the user medicine until the recognition training of theuser medicine is completed. The medicine recognition training requestreceiving unit 420 may check whether the received medicine image isincluded in the user's personal medicine information stored in themedicine information storage 410. If the received medicine image is notincluded in the user's personal medicine information, the medicinerecognition training request receiving unit 420 may perform therecognition training by using received medicine image.

The personal medicine information processing unit 430 may add the usermedicine of which recognition training is completed, into the user'spersonal medicine information of the medicine information storage 410based on the medicine image received by the medicine recognitiontraining request receiving unit 420.

If the personal medicine information processing unit 430 adds the usermedicine of which recognition training is completed to the user'spersonal medicine information, the server 400 may transmit to the userdevice 300 a training completion message informing that the recognitiontraining of the user medicine is completed.

After that, the server 400 may receive from the user device 300 amedicine image captured by photographing appearance of the user medicineof which recognition training is completed, as a request for recognitionof the user medicine. As such, the server 400 may analyze the receivedmedicine image, may read the appearance and a remaining quantity of theuser medicine, and may transmit to the user device 300 medicine quantityinformation and the user's personal medicine information stored in theserver 400.

Accordingly, if the request for recognition of the user medicine isreceived from the user device 100, the server 400 may determine whetherthe recognition-requested medicine is a user's personal medicine basedon the user's personal medicine information stored in the medicineinformation storage 410, and may transmit a determination result messageto the user device 100.

Hereinabove, the user device 100 for requesting the server 200 forrecognition of a user medicine, and the server 200 for recognizing theuser medicine and providing user's personal medicine information, inorder to provide a user's personal medicine information managementservice, are described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. The user device300 for requesting the server 400 for recognition training of a usermedicine, and the server 400 for performing the recognition training ofthe user medicine, in order to provide a user's personal medicineinformation management service, are described with reference to FIGS. 3and 4.

Although the user device 100 and the server 200 are described separatelyfrom the user device 300 and the server 400 for convenience ofexplanation, the user device 100 for requesting for recognition of auser medicine and the user device 300 for requesting for recognitiontraining of a user medicine may not be separated into different devicesand may be integrated into one device.

Likewise, the server 200 for recognizing a user medicine and the server400 for performing recognition training of a user medicine may not beseparated into different servers and may be integrated into one server.

The user device 100 or 300 and the server 200 or 400 may identify a usermedicine based on appearance of the user medicine if a user does notaccurately know the name and use of the user medicine. In a user'spersonal medicine information management service according to anexemplary embodiment, a user medicine may be managed based on appearanceof the user medicine, and product information such as ingredients,effects, and dosage instructions of the user medicine and personalmedication information, such as a medicine-taking history and aprescription history of a user may be provided to the user.

FIG. 5 illustrates medicine images 510 and 550 captured by a user deviceand recognized by a server, according to an exemplary embodiment. FIG. 5will be described in conjunction with FIGS. 1 through 4.

The user device 300 may obtain the medicine images 510 and 550 of usermedicines 530 and 570 to request the server 400 for recognition trainingof the user medicines 530 and 570. The user device 300 may directlycapture the medicine images 510 and 550 by using a mounted image sensor.Alternatively, the user device 300 may obtain the medicine images 510and 550 captured by a different device.

The user device 300 may transmit the medicine images 510 and 550 to theserver 400 as a request for the recognition training of the usermedicines 530 and 570. The server 400 performs the recognition trainingwith respect to visual information readable from appearances of the usermedicines 530 and 570. For example, the server 400 may performrecognition training of the user medicines 530 and 570 based onappearances of medicine packages 520 and 560 or the user medicines 530and 570 themselves in the medicine images 510 and 550.

If the recognition training using the medicine images 510 and 550 iscompleted by the server 400, the medicine images 510 and 550 may be usedas user's personal medicine information of the user medicines 530 and570. The medicine images 510 and 550, the medicine packages 520 and 560,and the user medicines 530 and 570 themselves may be registered in theuser's personal medicine information as identification information ofuser's personal medicines. The identification information of user'spersonal medicines may also include the names of the user's personalmedicines. The names of the user's personal medicines may be arbitrarilyinput by a user.

Also, the user device 100 may obtain the medicine images 510 and 550 torequest the server 200 for recognition of the user medicines 530 and570. The user device 100 may directly capture the medicine images 510and 550 by using an included image sensor.

The user device 100 may transmit the medicine images 510 and 550 to theserver 200 as a request for recognition of the user medicines 530 and570. The server 200 analyzes the medicine images 510 and 550 and readsthe types and quantities of the user medicines 530 and 570.

The server 200 analyzes visual information readable from the appearancesof the user medicines 530 and 570 in the medicine images 510 and 550.For example, the server 200 may extract the appearances of the medicinepackages 520 and 560 or the user medicines 530 and 570 themselves in themedicine images 510 and 550, and may search the user's personal medicineinformation stored in the server 200 to find related information. Ifinformation regarding the user medicines 530 and 570 is found from theuser's personal medicine information, the server 200 may transmit thestored information to the user device 100 as the user's personalmedicine information. Also, the server 200 may update a medicine-takinghistory from among pieces of the user's personal medicine informationstored in the server 200 by using the quantities of the user medicines530 and 570 read from the medicine images 510 and 550.

The appearances of the user medicines 530 and 570 read from the medicineimages 510 and 550 by the server 200 or 400 may include the shapes,sizes, colors, surface-engraved/embossed, or printed text or figures ofpills or tablets. Also, the appearances of the medicine packages 520 and560 read from the medicine images 510 and 550 by the server 200 or 400may include capsule colors, aluminum-coated soft plastic package shapes,box shapes, bottle shapes, bag shapes, sizes, colors,surface-engraved/embossed, or printed text or figures of the medicinepackages 520 and 560.

FIG. 6 is a detailed block diagram of a user device 600 for providing auser's personal medicine information management service, according to anexemplary embodiment.

The user device 600 includes a central processing unit (CPU) 610, amodem 620, an image sensor 630, a random access memory (RAM)/storage640, a user input means 650, a display 660, and a user's personalmedicine information related operation module 670.

The CPU 610 controls operations of the modem 620, the image sensor 630,the RAM/storage 640, the user input means 650, the display 660, and theuser's personal medicine information related operation module 670, inorder to receive the user's personal medicine information managementservice provided by the server 200 or 400 illustrated in FIG. 2 or 4.The modem 620 may support wired data communication or wireless datacommunication based on a wireless communication standard such as a 3rdgeneration (3G) or long term evolution (LTE) standard. The user'spersonal medicine information related operation module 670 may performwireless data communication with the server 200 or 400 via the modem620.

The user device 600 is an example in which the user devices 100 and 300illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 3 are integrated.

In order to provide a user's personal medicine information managementservice, the user's personal medicine information related operationmodule 670 may perform an operation of transmitting a medicine image tothe server 200 as a request for recognition of a user medicine, and anoperation of transmitting a medicine image to the server 400 as arequest for recognition training of a user medicine.

In more detail, a request for capturing of a medicine image, a requestfor recognition training of a user medicine, a request for recognitionof a user medicine, and a request for checking user's personal medicineinformation may be input by a user via the user input means 650.

Based on a request for capturing of a medicine image input via the userinput means 650, the user's personal medicine information relatedoperation module 670 may call the image sensor 630 to capture themedicine image of a user medicine.

Based on a request for recognition training of a user medicine input viathe user input means 650, the user's personal medicine informationrelated operation module 670 may transmit to the server 200 the medicineimage captured by the image sensor 630, and may display on the display660 a response received from the server 200.

Based on a request for recognition of a user medicine input via the userinput means 650, the user's personal medicine information relatedoperation module 670 may transmit to the server 400 the medicine imagecaptured by the image sensor 630, and may display on the display 660 aresponse received from the server 400.

Also, the user's personal medicine information received from the server200 or 400 may be stored in the RAM/storage 640.

FIGS. 7A, 7B, and 7C illustrate various examples of the user device 100or 300 illustrated in FIG. 1 or 3, according to exemplary embodiments.

The user device 100 or 300 may be a portable device 710, a medicinechest 730, or a medicine cabinet 750.

For example, the portable device 710 may include a mobile phone, a smartphone, or a tablet personal computer (PC) on which an image sensor 715is mounted. A user may manipulate the portable device 710 to capture amedicine image by photographing a user medicine 720 and may transmit themedicine image to the server 200 or 400 illustrated in FIG. 2 or 4. Aresponse received from the server 200 or 400 may be displayed on theportable device 710.

Alternately, an image sensor 735 may be mounded on the medicine chest730. A user may take one of user medicines 740 out of the medicine chest730 and place the medicine 740 close to the image sensor 735 to capturea medicine image. The medicine image captured by manipulating themedicine chest 730 may be transmitted to the server 200 or 400. Aresponse received from the server 200 or 400 may be displayed on adisplay of the medicine chest 730, or may be transmitted to anddisplayed on a different user device. For example, the server 400 mayreceive from the medicine chest 730 a request for recognition of one ofthe user medicines 740, and may transmit to a television (TV) user'spersonal medicine information regarding the recognized user medicine740, and the user may check the user's personal medicine information onthe TV.

Still further, an image sensor 755 may be mounted on the medicinecabinet 750, and a user may bring one of user medicines 760 out of themedicine cabinet 750 close to the image sensor 755 to capture a medicineimage. As such, the medicine cabinet 750 may scan one of the usermedicines 760 kept in the medicine cabinet 750 and selected by the user,by using the image sensor 755. The captured medicine image may betransmitted to the server 200 or 400, and a response received from theserver 200 or 400 may be displayed on a display of the medicine cabinet750, or may be transmitted to and displayed on a different user device.

The user device 100, 300, or 600 illustrated in FIG. 1, 3, or 6 may bemanufactured as an independent device. If medicines are kept in ageneral box or cabinet, the independent user device 100, 300, or 600 maybe installed on or adhered to the box or cabinet to capture and transmita medicine image to a server, thereby providing a user's personalmedicine information management service.

FIGS. 8A and 8B illustrate screens for displaying user's personalmedicine information, according to exemplary embodiments. FIGS. 8A and8B will be described in conjunction with FIGS. 1 through 6.

The server 400 may receive the medicine image 510 from the user device100 or 600 as a request for recognition of the user medicine 530. Theserver 400 may analyze the medicine image 510 and may check whetherinformation regarding the user medicine 530, which is read from themedicine image 510, is included in user's personal medicine informationstored in the medicine information storage 410. The server 400 mayadjust a search option whether to search the user's personal medicineinformation stored in the medicine information storage 410 for amedicine image identical or similar to an image of the medicine package520 or the user medicine 530 recognized from the medicine image 510.

If it is checked that the information regarding the user medicine 530corresponding to the medicine image 510 is stored in the medicineinformation storage 410, based on the image of the medicine package 520or the user medicine 530 recognized from the medicine image 510, theserver 400 may extract identification information, such as the type andname of the user medicine 530, from the stored user's personal medicineinformation.

The medicine information storage 410 may store information regardinguser's personal medicines, which is registered as the user's personalmedicine information, by performing recognition training of usermedicines, and may further store product information regardingnonprescription medicines sold on the market. Accordingly, although theinformation regarding the user medicine 530 of which recognition isrequested is not included in the user's personal medicine informationstored in the medicine information storage 410, if a non-prescriptionmedicine identical to the user medicine 530 is detected from the productinformation regarding non-prescription medicines, identificationinformation regarding the non-prescription medicine may be extracted.

Also, the server 400 may analyze the medicine image 510 and may read aremaining quantity of the user medicine 530. The server 400 may transmitthe extracted identification information and remaining quantityinformation of the user medicine 530 to the user device 100 or 600.

Also, if a time when recognition of the user medicine 530 is requestedby a user or a time when the recognition of the user medicine 530 istransmitted by the server 400 corresponds to a time when the user takesthe user medicine 530, information regarding the time when therecognition of the user medicine 530 is requested or transmitted may betransmitted to the user device 100 or 600. Accordingly, the server 400may transmit information regarding a medicine name, a remainingquantity, and a server response time or (a recognition request time)read from the medicine image 520, in response to the request for therecognition of the medicine image 510.

The user device 100 or 600 may receive the information read from themedicine image 520 and may form a medicine information window 810 todisplay the information on a display screen.

Also, the server 400 may update a medicine-taking history from amongpieces of the user's personal medicine information based on theremaining quantity of the user medicine 530 read from the medicine image520.

As another example, if the user device 100 or 600 sequentially requestsfor recognition of the medicine images 510 and 550, the server 400 mayanalyze the medicine images 510 and 550 and may determine the medicineimage 550 indicating a smaller remaining quantity, as an image after theuser takes the user medicine 570. As such, the server 400 may determinea time for requesting recognition of the medicine image 550, as amedicine-taking time, and may update the medicine-taking history fromamong pieces of the user's personal medicine information.

Also, the server 400 may transmit information read from the medicineimage 550, together with medicine identification information, remainingquantity information, and response time information, in response to therequest for the recognition the medicine image 550. Furthermore, theserver 400 may further transmit additional information, e.g., productinformation, such as ingredients and effects of the user medicine 570,and personal medication information, such as a medicine-taking historyand a prescription history of the user, which is included in the user'spersonal medicine information stored in the medicine information storage410, in response to the request for the recognition the medicine image550.

The user device 100 or 600 may receive the information read from themedicine image 550, and the additional information, such as ingredients,effects, a medicine-taking history, and may form a medicine informationwindow 850 to display the information and the additional information ona display screen.

Since a personal history of the user, e.g., a medicine-taking history,may be displayed in the medicine information window 850, the user'sprivate life may be revealed. Referring to FIGS. 7A, 7B, and 7C,although the portable device 710 is the user's personal product and thusis used personally, the medicine chest 730 or the medicine cabinet 750may be easily accessed by other people. Accordingly, the server 200 or400 may set authority to access the user's personal medicine informationin order to protect the user's private life. In this case, the server200 or 400 may provide the user's personal medicine informationincluding the medicine-taking history of the user upon a request of onlythe authorized user device 100, 300, or 600.

A medicine recognition training method to provide a user's personalmedicine information management service by a user device, by a server,and by the user device and the server will now be described withreference to FIGS. 9 through 11 in conjunction with the FIGS. 3 and 4.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart 900 of a method of requesting recognition trainingof a user medicine by the user device 300 to provide a user's personalmedicine information management service, according to an exemplaryembodiment.

In operation 910, in order to provide the user's personal medicineinformation management service via the server 400, the user device 300obtains a medicine image captured by photographing appearance of a usermedicine. The appearance of the user medicine covers a medicine, amedicine package, a medicine bottle, a medicine box, a medicine bag,etc.

In operation 920, the user device 300 transmits the obtained medicineimage to the server 400 as a request for recognition training of theuser medicine. The user device 300 may repeatedly transmit to the server400 a plurality of different medicine images captured by photographingthe user medicine until a training completion message is received fromthe server 400.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart 1000 of a method of performing recognitiontraining of a user medicine by the server 400 to provide a user'spersonal medicine information management service, according to anexemplary embodiment.

In operation 1010, the server 400 receives from the user device 300 amedicine image captured by photographing appearance of a user medicine,as a request for recognition training of the user medicine. In operation1020, the server 400 may add the user medicine into user's personalmedicine information based on the received medicine image. The server400 may analyze the received medicine image, may extract an imageshowing the appearance of the user medicine, and may store the showingthe appearance of the user medicine as the user's personal medicineinformation of the user medicine.

FIGS. 11 a and 11 b are flowcharts 1100 and 1190 of a method ofrequesting and performing recognition training of a user medicine by theuser device 300 and the server 400 to provide a user's personal medicineinformation management service, according to an exemplary embodiment.

In operations 1110 and 1120, a user captures a medicine image byphotographing a user medicine by using the user device 300 and uploadsthe captured medicine image to the server 400, e.g., a cloud server. Assuch, a request for recognition training of the user medicine may betransmitted to the server 400.

In operation 1130, the server 400 may analyze the medicine imagereceived from the user device 300. Methods of analyzing the medicineimage and recognizing the user medicine may differ according to the typeof the medicine image. For example, the server 400 may determine whetherthe medicine image is an image of a barcode or a label (operation 1140).

If the medicine image is an image of a barcode or a label, the server400 may recognize the user medicine by reading the barcode or the label.However, in this case, since the recognition training of the usermedicine is not necessary, an error message such as ‘No training isnecessary’ may be transmitted to the user device 300 (operation 1142).

If it is determined in operation 1140 that the medicine image is not animage of a barcode or a label, it is assumed that the medicine imageincludes an image showing appearance of the user medicine, and the imageshowing the appearance of the user medicine may be extracted andanalyzed (operation 1144). The recognition training of the user medicinemay be performed by analyzing the image showing the appearance of theuser medicine. A result of the recognition training of the user medicinemay be stored in a storage related to a medicine appearance recognitionmodule of the server 400. Also, the image showing the appearance of theuser medicine read from the medicine image may be stored in the server400.

In operation 1150, if the recognition training of the user medicine iscompleted by the server 400, the user medicine may be classified into anon-prescription medicine or a user's personal medicine. The usermedicine of which the recognition training is completed by the server400 may be classified into a user's personal medicine and may beadditionally registered in user's personal medicine information as a newpersonal medicine. Alternatively, if the user medicine of which therecognition training is completed by the server 400 is classified into anon-prescription medicine based on information regardingnon-prescription medicines purchasable on the market, the user medicinemay be registered in the user's personal medicine information as anon-prescription medicine.

In operation 1160, the server 400 may transmit to the user device 300 amessage informing that the recognition training of the user medicine iscompleted or a message informing that the user medicine is registered asa user's personal medicine or a nonprescription medicine, as a response.

In operation 1180, the user device 300 may check whether a trainingcompletion message is received, based on the response of the server 400received in operation 1170. If the recognition training is completed, anoperation for the recognition training of the user medicine between theuser device 300 and the server 400 is completed. If the recognitiontraining is not completed, the method returns to operation 1110, and anew medicine image may be captured by photographing the user medicineand may be transmitted as a new request for the recognition training ofthe user medicine.

The user may allocate tags for identifying user's personal medicinesincluding the user medicine of which recognition training is completedby the server 400 and which is added into the user's personal medicineinformation as a new personal medicine in operation 1150. An operationof allocating tags to user's personal medicines between the user device300 and the server 400 may be performed according to the flowchart 1190.

In operation 1191, the user device 300 may check whether the usermedicine is newly registered as a user's personal medicine in the user'spersonal medicine information of the server 400. In operation 1192, ifthe user medicine is newly registered as a user's personal medicine, theuser device 300 may receive a unique tag for identifying the user'spersonal medicine from the user. In operation 1193, the user device 300may transmit to the server 400 tag information of the newly added user'spersonal medicine. In operation 1194, the server 400 may store thereceived tag information by matching it to a result of the recognitiontraining of the medicine appearance recognition module. In operations1195 and 1196, the server 400 and the user device 300 may transmit andreceive a message informing that a tag is completely allocated to theuser's personal medicine that is newly registered in the user's personalmedicine information.

A method of providing a user's personal medicine information managementservice by a user device, by a server, and by the user device and theserver will now be described with reference to FIGS. 12 through 14, inconjunction with the FIGS. 1 and 2.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart 1200 of a method of providing a user's personalmedicine information management service by the user device 100 via theserver 200, according to an exemplary embodiment.

In operation 1210, the user device 100 obtains a medicine image capturedby photographing appearance of a user medicine. The user device 100 mayphotograph a medicine or a medicine package. In operation 1220, the userdevice 100 transmits the medicine image to the server 200 as a requestfor recognition of the user medicine.

In operation 1230, the user device 100 receives medicine quantityinformation and user's personal medicine information from the server 200based on a result of the recognition of the user medicine. If the usermedicine is recognition-trained by the server 200 in advance and thus isalready registered in the user's personal medicine information,identification information of the user medicine from among pieces of theuser's personal medicine information may be received. Also,non-prescription medicine product information and personal medicationinformation such as a medicine-taking history of the user from amongpieces of the user's personal medicine information may be received.

FIG. 13 a flowchart 1300 of a method of providing a user's personalmedicine information management service by the server 200, according toan exemplary embodiment.

In operation 1310, the server 200 receives from the user device 100 amedicine image captured by photographing appearance of a user medicine,as a request for recognition of the user medicine. In operation 1320,the server 200 analyzes the received medicine image and reads theappearance and a remaining quantity of the user medicine.

In operation 1330, the server 200 transmits to the user device 100medicine quantity information and user's personal medicine informationstored in the server 200, based on a result of the reading. That is, inaddition to identification information and quantity information readfrom the medicine image, the server 200 may extract and transmitnon-prescription medicine product information and personal medicationinformation such as a medicine-taking history of the user from amongpieces of the user's personal medicine information stored in the server200.

Also, the server 200 may update the medicine-taking history from amongpieces of the user's personal medicine information based on the medicinequantity information read from the medicine image.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart 1400 of a method of providing a user's personalmedicine information management service by the user device 100 and theserver 200, according to an exemplary embodiment.

In operation 1410, a user captures a medicine image by photographing auser medicine by using the user device 100 and uploads the capturedmedicine image to the server 200, e.g., a cloud server. As such, arequest for recognition training of the user medicine may be transmittedto the server 200 in operation 1420.

In operation 1430, the server 200 stores and analyzes the receivedmedicine image, and extracts an image showing appearance of the usermedicine and reads a remaining quantity of the user medicine from themedicine image. The server 200 may read the image showing the appearanceof the user medicine and may extract identification information of theuser medicine. The server 200 may search user's personal medicineinformation and may check whether the read image showing the appearanceof the user medicine is included in the user's personal medicineinformation.

In operation 1440, the server 200 may store quantity information readfrom the medicine image into the user's personal medicine informationand may update a medicine-taking history of the user.

In operation 1450, the server 200 may transmit to the user device 100the quantity information and the identification information read frommedicine image, as a response. Also, the server 200 may extract productinformation or personal medication information, such as themedicine-taking history related to the user medicine from the user'spersonal medicine information, and may transmit the product informationor the personal medication information to the user device 100.

In operations 1460 and 1470, the user device 100 may check whether therecognition of the user medicine is completed, based on the response ofthe server 200. If the recognition of the user medicine is completed, anoperation of recognizing the user medicine between the user device 100and the server 200 is completed. If the recognition of the user medicineis not completed, the method returns to operation 1410, and a newmedicine image may be captured by photographing the user medicine andmay be transmitted as a new request for the recognition of the usermedicine.

FIG. 15 is a block diagram of a convergence server 1500 for providing amachine-to-machine (M2M) service including a user's personal medicineinformation management service, according to an exemplary embodiment.

The server 1500 is a service enabling server for providing various M2Mservices between different devices by realizing an intelligent networkfor associating an Internet service with external communication networksof user devices 1510 including mobile terminals.

The server 1500 mainly includes an M2M mobile operator (MMO)/mobilenetwork operator (MNO) service interface unit 1540, an M2M service openapplication programming interface (API) module management unit 1550, aservice implementation module management unit 1560, a networkingmanagement unit 1570, and a service integration unit 1580.

The server 1500 may transmit and receive data to and from the userdevices 1510 based on an M2M protocol. The user devices 1510 implementM2M communications based on an M2M protocol, and thus may include alldevices capable of receiving various M2M services provided by the server1500. For example, the user devices 1510 may include, for example, asmart phone 1511, a tablet PC 1512, a camera/camcorder 1513, a displaydevice 1514 such as a TV, a kitchen appliance 1515 such as arefrigerator, a home network 1516 including a user's home network and anaccessible external home network, a vehicle 1517, and an exerciseequipment 1518.

The server 1500 performs data communication with an MMO managementserver 1520 of a communication carrier, which is located outside a homenetwork and manages MMO or MNO services, via the MMO/MNO serviceinterface unit 1540.

MMO/MNO service providers for operating the MMO/MNO services are mobilecarriers for providing mobile communication services by using mobilecommunication networks constructed by other mobile carriers. An MMO/MNOservice provider provides MMO/MNO services using existing mobilecommunication networks, makes profits from membership fees, callcharges, and supplementary service charges of customers, and paysproviders of the mobile communication networks for fees for using themobile communication networks.

For example, the MMO/MNO service interface unit 1540 may transmit orreceive device management information to or from the MMO managementserver 1520 based on an MMO specific protocol. The MMO/MNO serviceinterface unit 1540 may include an MMO server management unit 1542 formanaging at least one MMO management server 1520 that provides MMO/MNOservices to the server 1500, and a data management unit 1544 and anerror control unit 1546 for respectively managing and controlling dataand errors generated while receiving services of the MMO managementserver 1520.

The MMO server management unit 1542 may provide a common interface forexternal MMO service providers who want to provide MMO/MNO services viathe server 1500.

The networking management unit 1570 may include a user management unit1572, a device management unit 1574, and a connectivity management unit1576, and may manage user information, device information, andconnectivity states to form a network with the user devices 1510. Thenetworking management unit 1570 may observe and manage states of theuser devices 1510, and may control operations of the user devices 1510.

The service integration unit 1580 integrates various services providedby a service provider server 1530, in order to integrally providevarious M2M services. The service integration unit 1580 may include amain service plug-in module 1584 and a web service plug-in module 1582in order to provide web services provided by external service providersas well as main services provided by an operator of the server 1500.Data communication with the service provider server 1530, e.g., anoperation of downloading applications from the service provider server1530, may be performed via the main service plug-in module 1584 and theweb service plug-in module 1582. The web service plug-in module 1582 mayprovide a common interface for external service providers such asexternal website operators.

The M2M service open API module management unit 1550 of the server 1500provides an M2M service interface in the form of an API as a commoninterface for integrating and organizing various M2M services providedto the user devices 1510. In order to be freely used by external serviceproviders and to be functionally extended later, the M2M serviceinterface may be provided in the form of an open API. Accordingly,service providers may implement M2M services such as mashup services byusing the M2M service open API provided by the M2M service open APImodule management unit 1550, and the service integration unit 1580 mayintegrally manage M2M services of various service providers.

The service implementation module management unit 1560 may manageprofiles for implementing various M2M services provided by the server1500. The service implementation module management unit 1560 may manageservice profiles such as web applications for implementing the mainservices and the external web services which are integrated by theservice integration unit 1580.

The service implementation module management unit 1560 may provide ahome device management profile 1562 for managing and controlling homedevices of the user, a living and health management profile 1564 formanaging information regarding living and health of the user andcontrolling related devices, and a vehicle management profile 1566 formanaging various states of a vehicle of the user, e.g., driving,security, and maintenance states, as M2M services provided by the server1500.

One of integrated M2M services provided by the server 1500 is the user'spersonal medicine information management service provided by the server200 or 400 illustrated in FIG. 2 or 4. For example, the user's personalmedicine information management service provided by the server 200 or400 may be implemented by the living and health management profile 1564of the server 1500, and the user device 100, 300, or 600 illustrated inFIG. 1, 3, or 6 are examples of the user devices 1510 and may implementthe user's personal medicine information management service by using theliving and health management profile 1564 of the server 1500.

The service implementation module management unit 1560 may generate anew service profile by combining individually implemented serviceprofiles. For example, a refrigerator management service implemented bythe home device management profile 1562 may provide a service forsearching for food kept in a refrigerator, and a body fat managementservice implemented by the living and health management profile 1564 mayprovide a service for providing diet menus to reduce body fat of theuser. Although the refrigerator management service and the body fatmanagement service are basically implemented as separate services, theserver 1500 may associate the refrigerator management service and thebody fat management service with each other, and may implement a newservice for searching for food for managing body fat of the user in therefrigerator.

Since other communication carriers may easily access a local networksuch as the home network of the user devices 1510 via the commoninterface for mobile carriers and the open API for service providers,which are provided by the server 1500, various convergence services inwhich the local network of the user devices 1510 is connected to andassociated with external networks may be implemented and be provided tothe devices 1510.

Also, since the server 1500 manages users and the user devices 1510 of alocal network at an upper level of the local network and controlsconnection and association between the local network and externalnetworks, various convergence services provided by different serviceproviders may be individually or integrally provided to the user devices1510.

As described above, information regarding user's personal medicines maybe integrated, and thus, identification information and personalmedication information, such as a medicine-taking history regarding theuser's personal medicines, may be managed.

Furthermore, even a user medicine of which a name is not accuratelyknown may be identified by performing recognition training of the usermedicine based on appearance of the user medicine, and thus personalmedication information, such as a medicine-taking history and aprescription history, may be provided to a user. Non-prescriptionmedicine product information provided by pharmaceutical companies, e.g.,effects and ingredients of user's personal medicines, may also beprovided.

Accordingly, a user may timely take an accurate dose of medicine, may beprotected from drug abuse, and may efficiently keep medicines byselectively disusing unnecessary medicines.

The exemplary embodiments may be written as computer programs and may beimplemented in general-use digital computers that execute the programsusing a computer readable recording medium. Examples of the computerreadable recording medium include magnetic storage media (e.g., ROM,floppy disks, hard disks, etc.), optical recording media (e.g., CD-ROMs,or DVDs), etc.

While the exemplary embodiments have been particularly shown anddescribed, it will be understood by one of ordinary skill in the artthat various changes in form and details may be made therein withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by thefollowing claims. The exemplary embodiments should be considered in adescriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation. Therefore,the scope of the invention is defined not by the detailed description ofthe invention but by the following claims, and all differences withinthe scope will be construed as being included in the present invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of providing a personal medicineinformation management service by a user device that communicates with aserver, the method comprising: photographing a user medicine of a userto obtain a medicine image of the user medicine; transmitting to theserver a request for recognition of the user medicine, the requestcomprising the obtained medicine image; and receiving medicine quantityinformation of the user medicine and personal medicine information ofthe user from the server, based on a result of the recognition of theuser medicine, wherein the personal medicine information comprises animage of the user medicine of which recognition is performed by theserver, and wherein the result of the recognition of the user medicineis based on identification information, and the identificationinformation is obtained from appearance of the user medicine by theserver.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein a medicine-taking history fromamong pieces of the personal medicine information is updated based onthe medicine quantity information read by the server from the medicineimage.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving of the personalmedicine information comprises receiving at least one of a prescriptionhistory, a purchase history, a medicine-taking history, and a diseasehistory of the user regarding the user medicine from among pieces of thepersonal medicine information stored in the server.
 4. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the receiving of the personal medicine informationcomprises receiving at least one of non-prescription medicineidentification information and non-prescription medicine productinformation regarding the user medicine from among pieces ofnon-prescription medicine information stored in the server.
 5. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the personal medicine information comprisesinformation regarding at least one user medicine.
 6. The method of claim1, wherein the receiving of the personal medicine information comprisesreceiving a recognition failure message from the server if it isdetermined that the user medicine is not a personal medicine, based onthe result of the recognizing.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein theserver comprises a cloud computing based virtual server.
 8. A method ofproviding a personal medicine information management service by aserver, the method comprising: receiving from a user device a request torecognize of a user medicine of a user, the request comprising amedicine image of the user medicine; analyzing the received medicineimage to recognize the user medicine and to determine a remainingquantity of the user medicine; and transmitting to the user devicemedicine quantity information of the remaining quantity of the usermedicine and personal medicine information of the user stored in theserver, based on a result of the analyzing, wherein the personalmedicine information comprises an image of the user medicine of whichrecognition is performed by the server, and wherein the analyzing thereceived medicine image comprises obtaining identification for anon, andthe identification information is obtained from appearance of the usermedicine.
 9. The method of claim 8, further comprising updating amedicine-taking history from among pieces of the personal medicineinformation based on the medicine quantity information read from themedicine image.
 10. The method of claim 8, wherein the transmitting ofthe personal medicine information comprises transmitting at least one ofa prescription history, a purchase history, a medicine-taking history,and a disease history of a user regarding the user medicine from amongpieces of the personal medicine information stored in the server. 11.The method of claim 8, wherein the transmitting of the personal medicineinformation comprises transmitting at least one of non-prescriptionmedicine identification information and non-prescription medicineproduct information regarding the user medicine from among pieces ofnon-prescription medicine information stored in the server.
 12. Themethod of claim 8, wherein the personal medicine information comprisesinformation regarding at least one user medicine.
 13. The method ofclaim 8, wherein the transmitting of the personal medicine informationcomprises transmitting a recognition failure message to the user deviceif it is determined that the user medicine is not a personal medicine,based on the result of the analyzing.
 14. The method of claim 8, whereinthe server is a cloud computing based virtual server.
 15. A method ofproviding a personal medicine information management service by aserver, the method comprising: receiving from a user device a medicineimage of a user medicine of a user, as a request for recognition of theuser medicine; and adding the user medicine to personal medicineinformation of the user based on the received medicine image; andreceiving a tag for identifying the user medicine from the user deviceand storing the received tag.
 16. The method of claim 15, furthercomprising transmitting to the user device a training completion messageinforming that the recognition of the user medicine is completed. 17.The method of claim 15, wherein the receiving of the medicine imagecomprises repeatedly receiving a plurality of different medicine imagescaptured by photographing the user medicine until the recognitiontraining of the user medicine is completed.
 18. The method of claim 15,wherein the receiving of the medicine image comprises: checking whetherthe received medicine image is included in the personal medicineinformation stored in the server; and performing the recognitiontraining by using the received medicine image if the received medicineimage is not included in the personal medicine information.
 19. Themethod of claim 15, the medicine image comprises at least one of animage showing a shape of a medicine, and an image showing a shape of amedicine package.
 20. The method of claim 15, wherein the medicine imagecomprises at least one of an image showing non-prescription medicineidentification information of the user medicine, and an image showingnon-prescription medicine product information of the user medicine,which are readable from the appearance of the user medicine.
 21. Themethod of claim 15, wherein the personal medicine information comprisesat least one of a prescription history, a purchase history, amedicine-taking history, and a disease history of the user regarding theuser medicine.
 22. The method of claim 15, wherein the personal medicineinformation comprises information regarding at least one user medicine.23. The method of claim 15, wherein the server comprises a cloudcomputing based virtual server.
 24. A user device for providing apersonal medicine information management service, the user devicecomprising: a medicine image obtaining unit that obtains a medicineimage of a user medicine of a user; a medicine recognition requestingunit that transmits to a server a request for recognition of the usermedicine, the request comprising the obtained medicine image; and amedicine information receiving unit that receives medicine quantityinformation of the user medicine and personal medicine information ofthe user from the server based on a result of the recognition of theuser medicine, wherein the personal medicine information comprises animage of the user medicine of which recognition is performed by theserver, and wherein the result of the recognition of the user medicineis based on identification information, and the identificationinformation is obtained from appearance of the user medicine by theserver.
 25. A server for providing a personal medicine informationmanagement service, the server comprising: a medicine informationstorage that stores personal medicine information of a user; a medicinerecognition request receiving unit that receives from a user device arequest for recognition of a user medicine of the user, the requestcomprising a medicine image of the user medicine; a medicine imagereading unit that analyzes the received medicine image to recognize theuser medicine and to determine a remaining quantity of the usermedicine; and a medicine information transmitting unit that transmits tothe user device medicine quantity information of the remaining quantityof the user medicine and the personal medicine information stored in theserver, based on a result of the analyzing, wherein the personalmedicine information comprises an image of the user medicine of whichrecognition is performed by the server, and wherein the analyzing thereceived medicine image comprises obtaining identification information,and the identification information is obtained from appearance of theuser medicine.
 26. The server of claim 25, further comprising a personalmedicine information processing unit that sets the personal medicineinformation, wherein the medicine information storage updates amedicine-taking history from among pieces of the personal medicineinformation based on the medicine quantity information read from themedicine image.
 27. A server for providing a personal medicineinformation management service, the server comprising: a medicineinformation storage that stores personal medicine information of a user;a medicine recognition training request receiving unit that receivesfrom a user device a request for recognition of a user medicine of theuser, the request comprising a medicine image of the user medicine; anda personal medicine information processing unit that adds the usermedicine into the personal medicine information based on recognition ofthe received medicine image, wherein the server receives a tag foridentifying the user medicine from the user device and stores thereceived tag.
 28. A non-transitory computer-readable recording mediumhaving recorded thereon a computer program for executing the method ofclaim
 1. 29. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium havingrecorded thereon a computer program for executing the method of claim 8.30. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium having recordedthereon a computer program for executing the method of claim 15.